Observation reveals a hesitance in urban geography methods, suggesting increased detail may address urban challenges effectively.
Based on a survey of research articles published in Urban Geography between 2020 and 2024, I identify a tepidness in qualitative urban geographers' relationship with method. This tepidness is marked by agnosticism towards detailing methods with specificity in research outputs; and hesitancy in branching out beyond familiar, stalwart methods. As the subdiscipline looks forward upon the journal marking its 45th anniversary, I encourage urban geographers to engage with speculative experimentalism in their approach to methods, and to include greater method-ological detail in research articles. I argue that methods matter for the actionability of qualitative urban geography research both within and beyond academia; for urban geography in a highly politicized research climate; and for urban geographers' ability to address urban challenges and chart uncertain urban futures.
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Agnieszka Leszczynski (2025) studied this question.